After a tedious federal investigation that lasted more than three years, the FBI found no legal wrongdoing in the top leadership of Wayne County— an outcome the local media had a hard time processing.

Former County Executive Robert Ficano left the county in dreadful shape with a budget deficit close to $100 million. But the county’s problems were not all his doing. 

Wayne County was in deep financial trouble when the media went after Ficano and his administration. It is easy and simple to blame one man for everything that goes wrong. But the truth is always more complicated.

Wayne County has had major financial problems as a result of complex economic reality tied to circumstances beyond its borders. When the national housing market crashed in 2008, every county and local government in the nation struggled. But Wayne was hit hard by the crisis.

Plunging property values, the downturn of the auto industry and the decaying services in Detroit had already been plaguing the county, which lost more than 285,000 residents between 2000 and 2013, according to the U.S. Census. 

The fact that some Wayne County officials were convicted of corruption does not justify the media’s obsession with accusing the Ficano administration of corruption. Federal scrutiny means a greater prospect of finding wrongdoing, but Ficano cannot be held responsible for the actions of every employee in the county.

Investigative reporting is necessary. Its decline has allowed politicians to get away with murder, as in 2011, when President Obama ordered a drone strike in Yemen that killed Colorado native Abdulrahman al-Awlaki. The incident passed by unquestioned and underreported. 

George W. Bush took the country to war in Iraq under false claims as national media outlets conveyed the government’s lies to the American people without questioning. 

In the case of the media’s overreaching campaign against Ficano, however, the reporting was sensationalism disguised as investigative journalism. 

The media— especially local television stations, with their repetition of concerns about large pension packages for appointees, which were comparable to counties the size of Wayne— generated higher ratings and ruined many public servants’ careers, but did not prove actual corruption.

The media never focused on the five officials who were convicted of corruption during the federal investigation and cannot take credit for uncovering their crimes.

Our criticism of the media does not absolve Ficano and his administration of political and managerial mistakes or justify any patronage that might have existed in county government.

However, the names of good men and women were splashed all over the headlines with allegations of criminal conduct. In one editorialized news report last August, Channel 7 News claimed that Ficano was accessible to reporters and fighting corruption until the culture at the county changed after Azzam Elder was appointed as deputy CEO at the end of 2006. However, Elder received a rare letter from U.S. Attorney Barbra McQuade last month informing him that the investigation did not find him in violation of any federal law.

In the search for high ratings, local news outlets had low regards for people’s reputations.